1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to one or more of the following items individually and in combination: vacuum dairy milking machinery, both manually-connected and robotically-connected; methods for extracting milk from dairy animals, milk claws, milk claw tops, pulsation caps (air dividers or air forks) used in conjunction with milk claws, the arrangement of pulsation nipples and liner nipples, milking liners, short milk tubes, short air tubes, milking liner and shell combinations, and method of delivering pulsation air to a milking liner and shell combination.
2. Background Information
Dairy milking machines are well known in the art. One common form of these machines includes a claw 2 (see FIG. 1) that typically has four liner nipples 4 that each receives an end of a short milk tube 6 which is, in turn, connected to (or integral with) a teat cup assembly 8 that is attached to a teat to extract milk. Each teat cup assembly includes a rigid (hard plastic or metal) shell with a resilient milking liner (also known as a milking inflation) disposed at least partially within the shell. The combination of claw 2 attached to four teat cup assemblies is known as a cluster. An alternating or pulsating vacuum is applied to each teat cup assembly 8 through a short air tube 10 to cause the liner inside the shell to collapse and expand and thereby massage and suck milk from the teats. The milk flows from the liners, into the short milk tube 6, to the liner nipples 4 of the claw 2, and from there through a milk hose 12 to a collection tank.
Claw 2 depicted in FIG. 1 has a typical arrangement wherein four liner nipples 4 project outwardly (away from the center of claw 2) and upwardly (toward the udder when claw 2 is in use) from four quadrants of claw 2 such that they are generally directed toward the location of the teats. These liner nipples 4 are spaced and angled to provide a predetermined alignment to the four teats on the cow's udder. The angle of alignment is commonly 20 to 50 degrees to the horizontal axis of claw 2. Another variation of the claw structure is a nippleless claw where the milking liner or short milk tube plugs directly into the claw top. The angle of the liner/short milk tube coming out of the top of the claw may be about 70 to 80 degrees to the horizontal axis of the claw.
A pulsation cap or air divider 20 (also known as an air fork 20) is commonly mounted, incorporated into, or placed on (or used in conjunction with) claw 2. Air forks 20 are where the pulsating vacuum flow delivered through pulsation tube 22 (commonly referred to as twin tube 22) is divided to individual flows for each teat cup assembly 8. The pulsation nipples 24 of air fork 20 are commonly disposed in a plane parallel to the horizontal axis of claw 2 as shown in FIGS. 1-3 or the pulsation nipples 24 of air fork 20 are tilted up to about twenty degrees from horizontal (as shown in FIG. 4).
FIG. 1 shows how short air tubes 10 bow outwardly and can interfere with the legs 26 of the cow while in the milking position. Some cows become annoyed with this contact and will try to “shake” the unit off or the cow will continually move to try to prevent short milk tubes 10 hose from touching her leg 26. Both of these scenarios are undesirable and can result in equipment falling off which requires a milker to reattach the unit or the unit may not get reattached resulting in the cow not being fully milked out. FIG. 1 also shows the potential for the cow to lift up the leg 26 on the left and push the cluster off. Notice the split in the hoof where a short air tube 10 or short milk tube 6 could become caught. There is also the potential of the leg 26 getting caught between the short air tube and short milk tube. Either of these scenarios would likely result in continued kicking. This could cause cuts in the tubes or hoses or breaking the cluster.